iPEECHES DELIVERED ON THE 
OCCASION OF A DINNER, TO 
HIS EXCELLENCY JULESCAMBON 



LIB:E^.A-I^"5r 



U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



Class 



Df 




DINNER TO 
HIS EXCELLENCY JULES CAMBON 

AMBASSADOE OF FRANCE 

TO THE 

UNITED STATES 



One Thousand Copies 
printed in February, 1903, hy 

The Grafton Press, 
70 Fifth Avenue, New York 



DINNER TO 



His excellency JULES CAMBON 



AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE TO THE UNITED STATES 



BY 



Mr. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 



Mr. JAMES H. HYDE 




AT SHERRY'S 

NOVEMBER FIFTEENTH 

MCMII 



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THE SPEAKERS 

4* 

SENATOR CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 

MR. JAMES H. HYDE 

HIS EXCELLENCY JULES CAMBON 

HON. ELIHU ROOT 

PRESIDENT CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT 

ARCHBISHOP IRELAND 



MR. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 



SPEECH OF 

SENATOR CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 

MR. HYDE and myself are most happy 
to greet you this evening. We are de- 
hghted that for a cordial good-by and 
God-speed to the French Ambassador there should 
be present such a representative company of Amer- 
icans. 

There are represented here to-night the Execu- 
tive Department, the Legislative Department, and 
the Judicial Department of our nation, and the 
country's literature, journalism, law, finance, and 
Church. 

The relations between France and the United 
States have been picturesque for a hundred and 
fifty years. The most romantic chapters of the 
history of the early settlement of our country are 
the voyages of Champlain, La Salle, Marquette, 
and the other Frenchmen whose adventure, skill, 
and genius discovered and mapped out the lakes 
and rivers which have made possible the vast in- 
ternal commerce of the country. Later, at the 
most critical period of the Revolutionary War, 
when the prospects of success were darkest, France 
recognized the independence of our country and 
formed an alliance with us for its maintenance. 
Second only to Washington in our affections is the 

[9] 



brilliant young Frenchman who cast his lot with 
us in the beginning and remained true to our cause 
until the hour of triumph — Lafayette. Next to 
him is that great soldier, Rochambeau, whose splen- 
did army and whose cordial co-operation with 
General Washington brought about the surrender 
of the British at Yorktown and the independence 
of the United States. Since then, the relations be- 
tween the two countries have been of courtesy and 
friendship rather than of trade and commerce. We 
are to celebrate next year the acquisition from 
France of the Louisiana territory, which has been 
of such incalculable benefit to our country. The 
exposition which is to commemorate this purchase, 
the terms of which made the conveyance practically 
a gift from France, is to be the most important 
and significant of the long line of industrial fairs 
which have originated in the desire to celebrate the 
discovery and development of the country. It is 
desirable that among the first in welcome as well as 
in display at this great exposition at St. Louis shall 
be the generous nation from whose transfer has 
come to us so large a measure of the power, wealth, 
and happiness of the country. 

The current of diplomacy from the time of the 
Louisiana purchase followed smoothly on until the 
breaking out of the Spanish War. It was a mat- 
ter of vital moment to us that Europe should re- 
[10] 



main neutral. Hundreds of years of neighbor- 
hood, of intimate relations, of common inter- 
changes, extensive commerce and financial obliga- 
tions, had created the closest ties between Spain and 
France. Happily, France had at Washington a 
statesman and a diplomat whose intimate knowl- 
edge of our country and of our situation enabled 
him to keep his government so perfectly informed 
that official France remained absolutely neutral in 
the contest. 

It is very difficult for a representative of a for- 
eign power whose people speak a diff*erent lan- 
guage and whose traditions are also diff^erent from 
those of the country to which he is accredited to 
be more than the mere Ambassador of his Govern- 
ment. It is thus that the capable ministers of 
France who were sent to us for a hundred years 
past had their relations mainly, if not solely, with 
the State Department and with the President. 
But the distinguished statesman and diplomat who 
is our guest to-night extended his activities. He 
learned our language, absorbed the genius of our 
institutions, and was touched by the spirit of our 
people. He visited our great educational institu- 
tions, and spoke acceptably and significantly for 
the promotion of that study of languages which 
should bring closer together the people of his 
country and our own. He appeared before our 
[11] 



great commercial bodies and gave information 
upon which to found a closer and more intimate 
commercial relationship between our two countries. 
He has been a welcome contributor to our journals, 
and always in a way most instructive and beneficial. 
If the task of learning our language was difficult, 
he has performed a much more difficult one — he 
has won our hearts. 

Now, gentlem.en, one of the hosts here to-night 
is the President of the Federation of the Alliance 
Fran9aise, a society which has done much and is 
doing much all the while to promote the best of re- 
lations between France and the United States. I 
have the pleasure of introducing a gentleman who 
has done very much in his own person to promote 
these relations and to extend the usefulness of the 
Alliance Fran9aise — Mr. James H. Hyde. (Ap- 
plause. ) 



[12] 



MR. JAMES H. HYDE 




SPEECH OF 

MR. JAMES H. HYDE 

R. DEPE,W, Your Excellency, and 
Gentlemen : In view of the fact that Mr. 
Depew has already so well expressed 
what His Excellency the French Ambassador has 
done in every possible way to unite the two great 
sister Republics and to make them better under- 
stand each other, I shall merely, as one of the rep- 
resentatives of the educational and university side 
of the Ambassador's work, assume the great honor 
and privilege of proposing, first, the health of His 
Excellency, Monsieur Loubet, the President of the 
French Republic. (Toast drunk standing.) 

Secondly, for I know that it will be most agree- 
able to Monsieur Cambon, I shall propose the 
health of the President of the United States. 
(Toast drunk standing.) And, last, gentlemen, 
but not least, the health of His Excellency the 
French Ambassador, whom I hope we may call our 
common good friend. (Applause.) (Toast drunk 
standing.) Allow me, in closing, to thank you all 
for having come, some of you from a great dis- 
tance, to testify, in what I consider such a repre- 
sentative body, to our admiration for France and 
its able representative. (Applause.) 

[15] 



MONSIEUR CAMBON 



SPEECH OF 
MONSIEUR CAMBON 

GENTLEMEN, I cannot express to you 
how much I am impressed by your splen- 
did reception. I cannot express how much 
I thank Senator Depew and my friend, Mr. Hyde, 
and I thank you, also, gentlemen, the flower of 
America, for your kindness. And my thanks are 
a little mixed with melancholy because I leave 
America and my American friends. With your 
permission, although I am sure those of you at this 
banquet who speak French are very numerous, I 
will continue in French. (Applause.) 

Speaking in French, the Ambassador went on : 
Senator Depew said a short while ago, in very 
kind words, that I had succeeded in entering here 
into your various American circles, and that per- 
haps I had somewhat modified the opinion of my 
country which existed in the American mind. I 
am very thankful to Mr. Depew for these words. 
There is nothing I could more appreciate than his 
assurances of the friendship which I leave behind 
me in the United States. 

But, gentlemen, no matter what may be the 
measure of the kind remarks which are addressed 
to me, I have a very good sense that in the actions 
of an Ambassador nothing has real value, nothing 

[19] 



has real importance but that which is a true ex- 
pression of the sentiments of the people of his 
country. And allow me to say it, of all this kind- 
ness, of all this applause which greeted Senator 
Depew's too flattering remarks, I desire to keep in 
remembrance only that part which was intended for 
France, for I have, myself, never done anything 
but to represent her sentiments, her sympathies, 
and her friendship for the United States. 

Senator Depew has rapidly reviewed the part 
which France has played in your history since those 
very first and arduous days when she sent her vol- 
unteers and her regulars to aid General Washing- 
ton in the great War of Independence. He re- 
called the act by which France ceded to your 
country the great territory of Louisiana, then com- 
prising the whole of the Mississippi and the West. 
He recalled again the more recent circumstances 
during which France was found once more side by 
side with America when the latter, obeying the 
voice of her people, undertook to extend its influ- 
ence beyond this continent and across the seas. 

Well, gentlemen, if at all these solemn periods 
of your history you have found France more or less 
associated with you and in sympathy with the ends 
that you pursued, think not that it has been due to 
mere coincidence. If on all these occasions the two 
peoples have gone on hand in hand, without ever a 
[20] 



serious misunderstanding, it has been owing to 
something more, too, than mere political interests. 
It was because of the bond, the relationship, which 
certainly exists between our two histories. 

I have had the feeling that this was the case, 
and, being convinced that there exists to-day be- 
tween our peoples something which is not political 
or commercial interest, but which is to be found in 
the community of institutions by which the two 
Republics are following the same end of govern- 
ment of the people by the people and for the peo- 
ple ; and, perceiving that this created a tie different 
from the ties which unite other nations to one an- 
other, I held it my greatest duty to study and to 
make known this community of inspiration, this 
community of purpose, which, indeed, exists solely 
between French and American democracy. 

That is why you have seen me traversing the 
country from north to south and from east to west, 
instead of quietly remaining at Washington; that 
is why you have seen me visiting in particular the 
universities where your great American democracy 
is being fostered. 

If I have succeeded in my earnest endeavor the 
honor is due to my country, to the sentiments of 
my countrymen ; the thanks are due to you, to the 
sympathies which you have manifested before me; 
and these latter, I am well aware, rise far above the 
[21] 



personality of the man now about to leave you, 
who, after all, has been but the mere interpreter of 
France. These sympathies are the dearest remem- 
brances that I shall carry away with me. Once 
more I thank you for them. May there never be 
a cloud between your counti-y and mine. (Loud 
applause. ) 

Mr. Depew : I am happy to be informed by M. 
Cambon that he is satisfied that most of the au- 
dience understand French. (Laughter.) 

We have not with us this evening, I am sorry to 
say, the President of the United States, because he 
is shooting bears in Mississippi. The Bears are 
never all in Wall Street. (Laughter.) While we 
are deprived of the pleasure of having our Presi- 
dent, we have with us two members of the Cabinet, 
and I have the pleasure of introducing our own 
distinguished citizen of our own State, the Secre- 
tary of War. 



[22] 



MR. ROOT 



SPEECH OF 

HON. ELIHU ROOT 

MR. SENATOR, Mr. Hyde, Mr. Ambas- 
sador, and Gentlemen: It is a melan- 
choly duty to help you, sirs, in speeding 
this parting guest. Monsieur Cambon has been an 
ideal Ambassador. (Applause.) He has not 
merely defended, maintained, promoted the inter- 
ests of his own country, but he has illustrated and 
made attractive and charming to the people to 
whom he was accredited all that was noblest and 
best in the people of his own country. (Applause.) 
In our modern days, where peace and not war is 
the normal condition of man, the victories of peace 
consist not in wresting territory from a hostile peo- 
ple, nor in carrying away from their capitals their 
works of art, pictures or statues, or their wealth, 
but in gathering, the world over, all that is best in 
the lessons of national life and in the influences of 
national character, to help build up, more fully 
develop, completely round a competent national 
character. 

The Teutonic race has characterized and marked 
the development of this great new world to a de- 
gree which leads us often to forget how much we 
owe and how much we can derive from the great 
Latin race, which has given so much toward the 
[25] 



development of civilization, and which can give so 
much that we lack toward our own progress, 
toward the perfection of national and personal life 
of which we dream. (Applause.) 

Monsieur Cambon has illustrated to us all that 
was best in the Latin world. I have been sorry that 
he learned to speak English. I understand him 
better, but the grace, the beauties of his French al- 
ways seem to me to raise a picture of the golden 
fields of grain of his country spangled with bluets 
and coquelicots, always seem to bring into our 
rougher and ruder Teutonic civilization something 
of the infinite grace and beauty and taste with 
which the French people are endowing civilization. 
(Applause.) 

How much we owe to it ! Go back over the long 
history, from those early and stormy days when 
the Plantagenets went forth from their castles on 
the Loire across the seas to the conquest of Eng- 
land ; to the War of the Hundred Years ; to Louis 
XL, with his leaden saints, beating down the 
aristocracy of France ; to Henry IV., the beau- 
ideal of chivalric knighthood, to whom a race of 
kings unequalled in human history looked back 
with honor and pride and reverence ; to the great, 
the greatest of warriors, who with the power of 
that single nation withstood the armies of the 
world and gave the death-blow to the hide-bound 
[26] 



institutions which, for centuries, dwarfed and 
bound the developing powers of civihzation ; to the 
new RepubKc, whose footsteps we have all followed 
with hopes and prayers for its success and its per- 
manency, as, during these thirty years, it was 
proving itself a most important, most significant 
stronghold of popular rights, of popular sover- 
eignty, and of hopes for the future of the peoples 
of the earth — of the plain peoples of the earth in 
Europe. Through all the long course of the cen- 
turies, under the Plantagenets of Anjou, under 
Louis XI., under the great Louis XIV., under 
Napoleon the great soldier, under the new Repub- 
lic, the French people have been doing, with pain, 
with travail, with infinite labor and sacrifice, the 
work of civilization and of liberty. (Applause.) 

Through it all the sunshine of La Belle France 
has caused to blossom on the sour and stern soil of 
feudalism, not merely royalty, and aristocratic 
privilege, but the germs of chivalry and grace and 
beauty, and the beneficence of art— abundant bless- 
ings to mankind which soften and sweeten and en- 
noble and dignify humanity. (Applause.) All 
this Monsieur Cambon represents to us. (Ap- 
plause. ) 

It is not the least of his claims to our affection 
that in those dark days for Spain, when the hard 
and unbending decrees of fate required that this 

[27] 



great Republic should put an end to Spain's 
dominion in the Western hemisphere, when that 
people whose dignity, whose personal worth, whose 
abounding and estimable qualities we all recognize, 
was compelled to yield to overwhelming power, he 
was their fitting and sympathetic representative 
and defender. (Applause.) I hope that when 
Monsieur Cambon goes to his new mission in Madrid 
he will be able with certainty to say to the gentle- 
men of Spain that he left behind him in America 
nothing but respect and esteem and admiration for 
them. (Applause.) I hope he will tell them that 
his advocacy of their cause, to which he brought all 
the subtlety of intellect, all the ability of the trained 
diplomatist of France, has but raised him in our 
esteem, and given him an added title to our respect. 
(Applause.) And it is delightful to know that this, 
our friend, whom we have learned to esteem so 
highly, is going among those whose gratitude he 
has earned and whose affection he must have. (Ap- 
plause.) Our best and warmest hopes go with him 
for his success and his promotion of blessings and 
prosperity for the people of Spain and the people 
of France alike. Success and glory to him in his 
new field! Who knows what he may accomplish .? 
Who knows what this virile, acute, and discriminat- 
ing mind may do in the Iberian Peninsula.'' (Ap- 
plause. ) Who knows but he may lead to the union 
[28] 



of the Gaul and the Visigoth? Who knows but 
from liis agency may come sometime a great Latin 
repubHcan empire on the continent of Europe? 

Our best wishes go with you, sir. We shall fol- 
low your pathway with interest and affection. We 
hope for great things for you ; we wish great bless- 
ings for your country and the country to which 
you go. We bid you good-by, we bid you God- 
speed, and above all we say to you " Au revoir, 
Monsieur Cambon! " (Applause.) 

Mr. Depew : In the manifold relations in which 
M. Cambon has appeared in American life there 
is none which has been more significant or charm- 
ing or instructive than his presence in our univer- 
sities. There have come here to-night the presi- 
dents of many of them, including those of all the 
old universities, for the purpose of extending to 
him this cordial farewell. I have the pleasure of 
introducing the president of the oldest and the most 
reverenced college of them all. President Eliot, of 
Harvard. 



[29] 



PRESIDENT ELIOT 



SPEECH OF 
PRESIDENT ELIOT 

MR. SENATOR, Mr. Hyde, Gentlemen: 
We are all glad to acknowledge how 
much we are capable of learning from a 
courteous, friendly, distinguished Frenchman. But 
Ave should like to testify on this occasion (we have 
already testified on this occasion how much we owe 
to France), we should like to testify to the joy 
that all Americans have in the establishment in 
Europe of a firm Republic. We have rejoiced to 
see the French Republic dealing strongly and suc- 
cessfully with some of the most difficult problems 
that governments have to deal with, — with grave 
educational problems, with grave religious prob- 
lems, and with industrial problems graver still. In 
these achievements of the new France we recognize 
the fact that a new democracy has founded itself 
sohdly in the heart of Europe; and we democrats 
rejoice in that fact, and we beg our distinguished 
guest to tell his compatriots that this Republic 
heartily rejoices in the firm, assured existence of 
the French Republic. (Great applause.) We 
are specially glad for the strength that the Re- 
public exhibits. There has been a theory in the 
world that only Empires can be strong. We have 
given a demonstration to the contrary. Now 
[33] 



France is giving another, a new demonstration. 
We came from Teutonic stock, France from the 
Latin. The first settlers in this country were 
Protestants in every sense. France is CathoHc. 
This is a new demonstration, gentlemen, that a 
democracy can be firm, strong, and supreme. 

We have lately, to be sure, felt some hesitation 
whether there were not in our own country powers 
stronger than our Government. We have had oc- 
casion to observe that combined capital seemed to 
regard the Government of our country as a sec- 
ondary power. We have also observed that com- 
bined labor seemed to regard the Government of 
our country as a secondary power. But it is not 
so, gentlemen, and the coming years are going to 
demonstrate that the American democracy has the 
supreme authority in the continent it occupies. 
(Great applause.) (Renewed.) Two or three of 
the preceding speakers have spoken of obligations 
of our country to France. These obligations are 
great and various. They are military, political, 
educational, and artistic. I have sometimes thought 
that the object of supreme interest in France was 
the skilled artisan, the artistic artisan, the artistic 
craftsman. How different are our industries from 
the French. Ours are of the rudest sort — the in- 
dustries of agriculture and mining. Theirs of the 
most artistic sort. I read to-day a statement that 
[34] 



France produced the luxuries of life. It certainly 
produces the beauties of life, the delights of life. 
(Applause.) We possess only the raw material of 
prosperity. 

But now, gentlemen, in view of the heavy obli- 
gations of all sorts that we owe to France the 
Beautiful, what sort of a message should we like 
to have our distinguished friend here present con- 
vey to his countrymen on his return .? Should we 
not all be glad to have him say : " America recog- 
nizes its obligations to France." What does a 
man do who recognizes his obligations to a friend .^ 
Does not the man try to do something in return, 
something to testify to his gratitude and his ad- 
miration? Now, we can do something for France. 
We can do, out of our wealth, something that 
France would like to have us do to promote the wel 
fare of France. May we not all hope together that 
our people, that our Government, will do that thing .^ 
May there not be friendliness, sympathy, admira- 
tion and gratitude in the relation of one nation to 
another? Must we always think of our own 
interests only? We all know that this rich, 
strong, powerful nation can do much to promote 
the material interests and artistic interests of 
France. 

I wish our guest of the evening could say on his 
return : " Those Americans are going to do some- 
[35] 



thing for France, just because France wants it, 
just because France would like it." (Applause.) 

Now, Monsieur Cambon alluded to a certain 
melancholy which he felt in withdrawing from 
service in our country, and two or three of the other 
speakers have echoed that thought. I do not sym- 
pathize with those sentiments of regret. Mon- 
sieur Cambon has had a noble career here. (Ap- 
plause.) He goes back to further honorable ser- 
vice of his country in his chosen profession. His 
career goes on. We hope he will come back to see 
us again. (Applause.) But we want to-night to 
congratulate him on his career in this country, to 
give him joy of it, and to express the hope that it 
will always be to him a happy memory. (Applause.) 

Senator Depew: Gentlemen, I shall ask, not 
a benediction, but a farewell, from a gentleman 
who, eminent as he is in all the world as an ec- 
clesiastic, nevertheless is first and foremost always 
as an American citizen ; who, by his eloquence and 
attitude toward capital and labor, and by the 
words that he has eloquenth^ and wisely spoken 
for the peace of all of the classes of the United 
States, has endeared his personality to all the peo- 
ple of the United States. That word of farewell 
will be spoken by Archbishop Ireland. 

[36] 



ARCHBISHOP IRELAND 



SPEECH OF 
ARCHBISHOP IRELAND 

MONSIEUR CAMBON : Is it not plain to 
you this evening that America makes will- 
ing recognition of the work done by you 
while you tarried with her, of the regard and the 
aif ection for herself and her institutions that char- 
acterized your career as France's representative at 
her capital? This evening it will not be said that 
republics are ungrateful. Certainly toward you 
America is not ungrateful. 

The country hails you. The guests gathered 
within this banquet-hall are not the citizens of New 
York. They are the citizens of New York, and, 
also, the citizens of Boston, of Philadelphia, of St. 
Louis, of Chicago, of New Orleans: they are the 
spokesmen of the whole country. Together, one 
and all, they salute you and proffer you their hom- 
age. Officially, too, the nation speaks: the Chief 
Executive of the Republic has sent by letter his 
cordial greetings; so, too, his Secretary of State; 
and present with us is his Secretary of War to 
greet you by living word, to toast you as the warm 
friend of America. 

Monsieur Cambon, long will your name live in 
the memory of America. (Applause.) Americans, 
Monsieur Cambon deserves our gratitude and our 
[39] 



affection. You all have known his courtesy and 
his regard toward America while he has been in 
America. I have been able, in a particular manner, 
to observe throughout France the effects upon that 
country of his love for America. Wherever he went 
when revisiting France he spoke admiringly of the 
Republic of the West; he spoke affectionately of 
the American people. (Applause.) He labored 
with energy and with success to uproot any senti- 
ment of mistrust that might have been lingering in 
the minds of any class of Frenchmen toward 
America. As our honored Chairman has well re- 
marked, very much is due to Monsieur Cambon for 
the position which the Government of France took 
toward us during the late American-Spanish War, 
which I know (and this was said to me again 
and again by our Ambassador, Mr. Horace Porter) 
was not only that of neutrality, but of neutrality 
the most considerate, the most kindly. 

Monsieur Cambon, you have decidedly estab- 
lished between America and France reciprocity of 
friendship. (Applause.) It would have taken but 
very little further effort on your part to have es- 
tablished reciprocity of commerce. (Applause.) 
Hearts, after all, are potent guides, even in the 
commercial affairs of nations. When men meet 
who esteem one another, who love one another, 
things are said and done which would not have been 
[40] 



said and done, had it been theirs only to hsten to 
the cold calculations of interests. 

M. Cambon, we thank you. In you we see 
your great country, La Grande France; through 
you we thank France. 

You have said it, gallant, chivalrous as you are 
— in your regard and affection toward America, 
you represented France. I accept your words. I 
confirm them as most true. I have travelled through 
France ; I have spent years within her frontiers ; I 
know France; I know her statesmen; I know her 
people; I know her heart. And that is my testi- 
mony of France (I am glad to speak it openly in 
a representative assembly of Americans such as 
that which I am now addressing)— in the bosom of 
France there is an abiding friendship, beautiful 
and strong, for America. 

Frenchmen have not forgotten that French 
blood did flow in union with American blood to 
establish the Republic of the West. When they 
behold the Stars and Stripes, they feel that they 
have a proprietorship of honor in the noble flag; 
and anxious they are for its glory. The glory of 
America is the continuation of the glory of France. 
To-day throughout France, families recall with 
pride that ancestors of theirs fought with Lafay- 
ette and Rochambeau. It is an envied honor in 
France to be the descendant of an old American 
[41] 



soldier. Frenchmen will ever remember that once 
on battle-fields, where a cause most precious was at 
stake, they were "freres-d'armes" with the sons of 
America, and together with those they will ever 
love the victorious embodiment of that cause — the 
Republic of the United States. 

In their turn Americans do not forget that, in 
their hour of need, help — help most generous, most 
effective — came to them from France, that without 
France's soldiers, without Lafayette and Rocham- 
beau, the Declaration of Independence of 1776 
would have been, at the time, nothing more than a 
sublime, but vain, appeal to liberty and to jus- 
tice. 

They know, furthermore, that the spirit of the 
Declaration of Independence is the self-same spirit 
that to-day animates the political institutions of 
France. 

Our heai'ts go out to the Republic of France. 
We pray that she may endure. The destruction or 
the weakening of the Republic of France would be 
the weakening of democracy ; we ourselves should 
feel the wound. So long as democracy is borne 
aloft by America and France, we have in it confi- 
dence unbounded. America and France are uncon- 
querable; institutions upheld by America and 
France are imperishable. (Applause.) 

It is well for the better and stronger life of both 
[ 42 ] 



countries that there does exist this spirit of union 
and of friendship between America and France. 
Each one has much by which the other may profit. 
Americans have many great and good things to 
their credit. Ours is a continent the hke of which, 
according to de Tocqueville, Providence never gave 
to a people, so fertile in soil, so health-giving in 
climate, so inexhaustible in resources. We have 
grown in numbers from three millions to nearly 
one hundred millions. We are growing so fast 
that Ave are dazed as we look forward to what we 
shall be a century hence. We have grown in com- 
mercial power, through the fertility of our soil, 
the skill of our workmen, the acute mind of our 
capitalists and our leaders of industry. With our 
commercial activities we are invading the world. 
We are everywhere with the fruits of our farms, 
the products of our workshops, the marvels of our 
genius for invention. In this, certainly, we have 
no reason to envy France, to envy whatever nation 
upon the face of the globe. But business enter- 
prise and commercial conquest do not exhaust the 
aspirations of a people, do not suffice for their 
social completeness. There are other things that 
we need, and for those we may look to France, to 
draw with profit to ourselves from the abundance 
of her storehouses. Heretofore in America we 
have had but little time to bring into our lives the 
[43] 



culture of civilization, the sweetness of art, the ele- 
gance of all that is best in idealism. We have been 
so much occupied with the realities of life that we 
have not yet sufficiently concentrated our thoughts 
on the higher regions which are the native home of 
the better and the greater man. Well, of poetry, 
of idealism, of sweetness of culture, of rich elevated 
thought, France is the chosen land : we shall extend 
the hand toward her, and receive from her some 
of her riches to beautify therewith our beloved 
America, to make therewith America not only the 
greatest commercial nation, but at the same time, 
the sweetest and the best among the civilized people 
of the earth. (Applause.) 

And while receiving from France what we need, 
may we not be giving to France that which, per- 
haps. Monsieur Cambon, she needs.'' It is said 
that France, in her soarings toward the ideal, for- 
gets somewhat the solid ground upon which her feet 
should rest. To be, nowadays at least, a great 
nation, to remain a great nation, a country, while 
fully mindful of the ideal, must see that the mate- 
rial is within its reach. The material is the foot- 
stool upon which we stand, from which alone we 
can safely lift ourselves toward the skies. Well, 
let France see and know America and learn from 
her. Steadfastness of purpose, activity of labor, 
economy of strength, vastness of conceptions and 
[ 44- ] 



LofC. 



unbending resolve to realize them — these are Amer- 
ica's treasures, and these her gifts to nations that 
come into closest contact with her. 

The real and the ideal — ^America and France ! 
Let the one give to the other; let the one receive 
from the other ; let the two go hand in hand : and 
they rise amid nations the wonderment of the civil- 
ized world. (Applause.) 

And so, Monsieur Cambon, in re-crossing the 
Atlantic, take with you, we pray you, the kindliest 
remembrance of America. Forget us not; be our 
representative to the peoples of Europe; when 
among them you hear mention made of America 
say to them that you have known her, and that 
you are her friend. We shall not forget you. 
Your name will long remain with us, as that of one 
who sought sincerely to know us, who understood 
us, who mingled as one of ourselves in our national 
commemorations and our social joys, who, we be- 
lieved, while going from us leaves in America no 
small part of his heart's affections. 

And so, too, Monsieur Cambon, as you set foot 
on your native soil, give to France our cordial 
salute. Speak to her our wishes for her peace, her 
welfare, her glory. A great nation she has been; 
such she still is ; such may she ever be. Say to her 
that magnificent historic traditions bind vitally 
America to her. Friends they are, those two noble 
[45] 



nations — America and France ; friends be they for 
ever ! (Applause.) 

Senator Depew: My friends, this closes the 
formal part of our farewell to Monsieur Cambon. 
I trust, however, that the informal part, that of 
the meeting and greeting so many gentlemen, ac- 
quaintances, and friends, who have been brought 
from all parts of the country for this purpose, may 
continue indefinitely ; and in closing the formal 
part, I think we may all rise and wish bon voyage, 
God-speed, long life, health, happiness, and the 
gratification of all his ambitions to Ambassador 
Cambon. (Applause.) 



[46] 



Rcor Admiral Alliert 
Jacob H 
Mo 
Hon. Whilclaw 1 
I'rcBidcnt ^Nicholufl Murrny But 
I'reaidcnt William 'Kalncy llurpci 
lion. Tliomas C. Plutt 
Archbishop IrchuiU 
Prcnitlcnt Clinrlci Willinm HIiut 
Jncnci II. Hyde 
,nla Qxccllcncy Jules Cambon 
CImunccy M. Dcpew 
Hon. llciijnmin B. Odcll, Jr. 
Hon. Ellhu Root 
J. I'icrpont Morgan l7 
Hon, I'hihindcr C. Kni 
Major General Henry C. Corbin 

Melville E. Stone \ 4 
I'reiiidenl Arthur TwininK Hndlcy 

Hon. Alton DrookH Parker 

Jnincs W. Alexnndc; 




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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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